UN: Poverty will increase as climate change affects food supply

Climate change and extreme weather are already hurting the global economy and, if left unchecked, will push millions of people into poverty while driving up food prices and disrupting trade and labor markets, experts said. from the ONU.

An article by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that there remains “a short and fast window of opportunity to ensure a livable and sustainable future for all”.

The article makes clear that climate change is affecting the world faster than scientists expected, while countries fail to curb the carbon emissions that cause global temperatures to rise.

“The economic damage of climate change has been detected in sectors exposed to the climate, with regional effects in agriculture, fishing, energy and tourism, and through the productivity of outdoor work,” the article says.

“Individual livelihoods have been affected through changes in agricultural productivity, impacts on health and food security, destruction of homes and infrastructure, and loss of property and income, with adverse effects on equity. gender and social”, he added.

The article chose not to quantify the impact in terms of global production, pointing to the wide range of existing estimates based on different methodologies. However, he said the disproportionate damage would be felt in the poorest and most vulnerable economies.

“Large regional variations in the aggregate economic damages from climate change are expected, with estimated per capita economic damages for developing countries typically higher as a fraction of income,” he concluded.

In what it called a “high vulnerability scenario”, it estimated that an additional 183 million people would be undernourished in low-income countries due to climate change by 2050.

The article comes against a backdrop of rising fuel prices and inflation that has led some politicians to resist efforts to promote cleaner energy sources, arguing that doing so will only increase the cost of living for poorest.